Differences Aside
by drJsg1
Summary: John Carter lost his apartment again and his old mentor Peter Benton takes him in. JCPB friendship.
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own any ER characters.**

**Chapter 1**

It was raining. It had been raining non-stop for weeks. He told his landlord repeatedly that the roof of the one floor apartment building needed fixing, but was ignored time and time again. 'I guess now he believes me,' he thought, remembering how annoyed he was when water started leaking through and how scared he was when the roof finally gave way last night. He was desperate, he wouldn't do it otherwise, but he was so cold and wt and had developed a nasty cough, how bad could it be right?

He walked up the driveway, shook the excess water out of his hair and hesitantly knocked on the door. When no one came, he knocked harder and faster and faster and harder until the door was finally answered with a loud, "What!" There was a pause as the owner of that voice closed and opened his eyes in disbelief. "Carter. What are you doing here?"

All he got was a stuttering reply, "I'm sorry to bother you Dr. Benton, but could I come in please?"

Dr. Benton moved away from the door as Carter gave himself one last shake to get rid of the extra water, before stepping inside.

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	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own any ER characters.**

**Chapter 2**

"What are you doing here Carter?" Benton asked annoyed.

"I . . . I lost m . . . my apartment," Carter replied, teeth chattering from the cold.

"What again?" Benton smirked. "What happened this time?"

John was still shivering in the corner of the room, not wanting to get Benton's furniture wet, but he was having a hard time standing up at this point. "It was . . . a . . . flood," he stuttered out as he started to sink to the ground. "Too much . . . rain, roof . . . caved in." He fell the rest of the way to the ground.

Peter, who had gone into the kitchen to get something to drink, hurried back out when he heard a thud. When he saw Carter on the floor, he immediately felt guilty for not making sure he was okay when he first arrived. He rushed over, "Carter, Carter? Come on man, answer me." All he got in response was a wet, hacking cough before the young man leaned over and threw up all over the floor. "Whoa. Carter!" When Carter looked up at him with those pitiful eyes, he felt even guiltier. "Alright, it's okay. Let's go clean you up Carter." Benton helped John to his feet and supported his weight until they got to the closest bathroom.

"Okay. Sit down here for a second and I'll be right back." Benton helped John sit on the toilet, remembering to put down the lid down and walked out to calm himself so that he didn't get his ex-student all riled up. He quickly gathered his thoughts before hurrying back into the room. He silently grabbed a washcloth, wet it, and started washing the face and hands of his despondent patient. Carter jerked back as he first started but stilled quickly and remained silent, save for a few coughs here and there. "Come on Carter. We have to take those wet clothes off," Peter said after the washcloth was sufficiently dirty with grime and puke. In response, Carter just wrapped his arms tighter around himself in a self-hug. "Come on man, you don't want to get any sicker than you already are? Do you?" Benton asked in annoyance. Carter just glared, not feeling well enough to do anything else, and let Peter help him take off his soggy clothes.

It was quite a feat to get the clothes off, seeing as they had seemingly molded themselves to the young man's body. Once the clothes had come off, Benton hacked away in shock before shouting, "Carter! Why didn't you tell me you were hurt?"

Carter shrugged miserably and stuttered, "Didn't kn . . . know . . . I . . . was."

"How could you not know? How long were you wandering around out there?"

"Long time."

"I don't know how you ever became a doctor when you are such an idiot Carter." John glanced up at him, hurt, but Benton just went on raging. "Why didn't you go to the hospital or you grandmothers for goodness sake? I thought she didn't live that far from your apartment?"

"She's out of town," Carter whispered.

Benton sighed, his anger fading, as he looked at his old student. The defeated look in his eyes and the way he was hugging his body to keep out the cold made him look so young. "I'm sorry Carter. I'll run some bath water, I want you to get warmed up, and I'll try to find some clothes that might fit you, for you to wear."

"Okay," Carter responded, still unable to look at him.

Peter sighed yet again as he set up the bath water and went to his room to find anything that would fit the smaller man before heading back to the bathroom. All he could here from inside was the water running and a few small coughs, which though sounded bad, did not sound bad enough to warrant a hospital trip, so he set the clothes inside the door and went downstairs to set up the couch for Carter.

John came down almost twenty minutes later and Peter had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing at the sight before him. Carter was stumbling down the stairs, obviously exhausted, the shirt and pants he was wearing made the lean man look like a little kid playing dress-up. Peter walked over and led him to the couch helping him sit down. He lifted up the shirt and quickly cleaned and wrapped the wounds after making sure they were not infected, which thankfully they weren't. When he was done he said, "If you get hungry during the night the kitchen is right through there and if you get cold there are more blankets in the closet over there."

Carter just nodded as he lay down on top of the blankets, too tired to move.

Peter smiled a little at how child like the young man appeared and lifted his legs to get the blanket out from under them and tucking it up to his chin with Carter's big eyes following his movements. When finished, Peter cleared his throat, thoroughly embarrassed by his caring attitude before grumbling a, "good night."

"Good night," Carter said, his eyes closed and his words slurring.

Peter started to head up the stairs when he heard the soft voice again, "and Dr. Benton? Thank you."

Peter just gave a small smile before turning out the lights and heading upstairs to bed.

**I hoped you liked it. **

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	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own any of the ER characters.**

**Thank you to those who reviewed.**

**Chapter 3**

John woke up the next morning with a start, taking awhile to remember what had transpired and where he was. In the kitchen, he could here the sounds of breakfast being made, but he wasn't that hungry so he decided to remain where he was. He sat for a few minutes before starting to get up to get ready for work. An abrupt coughing fit made him rethink his plan however. He sat back down as Peter came in from the kitchen, "not feeling any better?"

"I'm fine," John squeaked. His voice hadn't had that quality since he hit puberty.

"I can tell." Benton put his hand on his forehead trying to see if he had a fever while Carter kept trying to shake him off.

"I told you I was fine," John said, adding his best glare for good measure.

"And I don't believe you. You have a fever."

"I feel fine."

"You can't treat patients like this."

"I feel fine."

"Well your not." Benton got his phone from the counter and shoved it into John's hands.

"You need to call in sick."

"But I feel fine," Carter whined.

"Call."

Carter sighed and started dialing the next number, giving in. Benton stood right next to him the whole time to make sure he really did it. "Hey Jerry, it's John . . . John Carter . . . How many John Carters' do you know?" John asked while rolling his eyes. "Yeah. I won't be in today. I seem to have caught some kind of bug . . . No Jerry, I am not playing hooky . . . I haven't used a sick day yet, I'm the . . ." John was cut off abruptly as he went into an uncontrollable coughing fit.

After a few minutes, Benton grabbed the phone from Carter and shouted, "He's not faking. Just tell Weaver okay?" He hung up and went back to Carter who still hadn't gotten the coughing under control. "Alright, calm down. Try to take long, deep breaths."

Carter tried, but he just couldn't seem to get enough air into his lungs and with one big cough, he threw up, once again, all over Benton's shoes. "Aw, Carter!" he exclaimed stepping back in disgust.

John looked up with tears from strain streaming down his face, "sorry."

Peter looked at John and sighed, "No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, are you okay now?"

Carter nodded, looking down and wiped the tears off of his face, ashamed that the man he still considered a mentor, had seen him cry.

"Let me check your injuries to make sure the coughing didn't irritate them." Carter lifted his shirt as Benton unwrapped the bandages, "they still look okay. What happened anyway?"

"I woke up when I heard the roof give and when it started to fall towards me, I rolled off of the bed and onto the floor." He winced as Peter touched a particularly tender spot. "I forgot I left the foot stool next to the bed."

"A foot stool?"

"I couldn't reach the top shelf in my kitchen," he shrugged. "It didn't seem that bad so I didn't go to the hospital."

"I still would have preferred that you go checked out at a hospital, but you're right, they are not that bad. The gashed aren't deep enough to need stitches and they don't look infected, but we'll keep an eye on them. But I think you should be fine." Benton gets some gauze and rewraps the wounds. Once he was done, Carter slowly pulls his shirt down with a wince and reclines back onto the couch with a small groan.

"You better hurry or you are going to be late for work."

"You know Carter, I could stay around here and make sure . . ." he shrugs, unsure of how to continue.

John tries to smile at him but it turns out as more of a grimace. "I'll be fine Dr. Benton."

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Peter gets up and starts walking towards the door. "Dr. Benton?"

"Yeah?" he replies turning around.

"You might want to change your shoes first."

Peter looked down at his soiled shoes and his face crinkled in disgust. "Oh. Yeah."

He heads upstairs as John starts to laugh but once again it turned into a coughing fit. "I'm okay!" he called as he finally finished. Benton just smiled.

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	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own any of the ER characters. **

**Chapter 4**

Peter Benton walked through the front door and everyone at the front desk turned and stared at him. "What?" he asked in annoyance. He looked at Jerry who had this wide grin on his face. "Something you want to tell me Jerry?"

"I didn't say anything." Under his breath he mumbles a "nothing that isn't true anyway," not even bother to hide his wide grin.

"So . . . Carter is staying at your place huh?" Haleh asked.

Benton glared at Jerry and gritted his teeth for his response, "he lost his apartment. I'm just helping him out."

"He lost his apartment again? Jerry asked incredulously.

Benton shrugged. "Well, it is very nice of you to let him stay at your place until he finds another apartment," Chuny said.

"Yeah. Real nice," Jerry added.

Benton passed another glare Jerry's way and walked off to the locker room to hang up his coat and mentally prepare himself for the day.

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	5. Chapter 5

**I do not own any of the ER characters.**

**Chapter 5**

Carter woke later that day with a pounding headache. He hadn't had one that bad since childhood. He slowly rose to his feet. He started walking when a wave of dizziness suddenly overcame him and he fell to the ground. He groaned as his sore body hit the floor. He tried to get up again but wasn't able too. John tried to reach the phone but even with his arm stretched out as far as it could go, he couldn't reach it. He could tell something was wrong, he was a doctor, he could feel it but there was nothing he could do but let out a silent prayer, 'God, help me please. Don't let me die, not yet. There are so many things I haven't done or seen. Please God, have mercy.' As he finished he felt a calmness overcome him as his eyes slid closed and he passed out.

Benton could not explain it. He just knew something was wrong. It was the same feeling he got whenever Reece was hurt. He rushed down the hall to the nearest phone and called his home phone. Nobody picked up. He tried again and again, but still nobody answered. He quickly hung up the phone, told Kerry he was taking a break and rushed home, leaving Dr. Weaver shouting after him.

Twenty-two minutes had never felt so long to him as he pulled up his driveway and rushed inside. Benton had never felt so ill as he did when he saw John passed out on the floor, his hand stretching, but not quite reaching the telephone. He moved quickly to his side and felt to see if he had a pulse. He did. Peter grabbed the phone, called 911, and hung up quickly so he could go back to Carter, "Carter, can you here me? Carter!"

"Huh?"

"Don't worry. I called an ambulance and they are on their way."

"Don nee ambance. I fine," he slurred.

"Hate to tell you this, but I don't believe you."

"Why it cold? Leave door open?"

"No I didn't leave the door open. Here," he gets the blanket off of the couch, helps John into a sitting position and wraps it around him. "Better?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"So what happened?"

"I passed out."

"Yeah, I got that."

John looked down at his feet, embarrassed. "I've had a hard time sleeping lately and I haven't been that hungry and I guess it all caught up to me."

"So you're telling me that you haven't slept, you haven't eaten, you spend a whole day in the freezing cold rain, you had a roof collapse on you and . . ." he paused and shakes his head . . . "Carter, you really are an idiot, why didn't you ask for help before now?"

Carter started to get angry, "and who would I ask Dr. Benton? My parents? They are out of town. My grandparents are also out of town and my sister lives too far away, my cousin can no longer help anybody and my aunt and uncle hat me because of that. The only friends I have are my co-workers because I work too much to have other friends and I did ask someone for help, I asked you!" Carter was really out of breath by the end of his outburst and Benton awkwardly put his arm around his shoulder in a comforting motion and John leaned into his side, exhausted. "I'm sorry," he sighed, tiredly.

"No, I'm sorry. I haven't been a very good friend to you. Look, I'll make you a deal. You get checked out by the hospital and when they clear you, you can stay with me as long as want until you find a new apartment."

"You mean that?"

"I've got plenty of room and it would be nice to have some company. So, do we have a deal?"

Carter hesitated momentarily before replying, "Yeah, I guess we do." As he answered the two men could here a siren in the distance coming closer and closer to them.

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